Michael Wood: Biographical Details:
Michael Wood is the writer and presenter of many critically acclaimed series on television, including Art of the Western World, Legacy and In the Footsteps of Alexander the Great. He is author of over sixty TV films which have been shown worldwide and of several best selling and highly praised books.
He was educated at Manchester Grammar School and Oriel College Oxford where he did postgraduate research in Anglo-Saxon history. Since then he has worked as a journalist, broadcaster and film maker. His films have centred on history, but have included travel (Great Railway Journeys of the World; River Journeys; The Sacred Way); politics (Saddam's Killing Fields: an award winning account of the destruction of the Marsh Arabs of South Iraq) and cultural history (Hitler's Search for the Holy Grail, 1999: a study of the abuse of history and archaeology under the Nazis).
Conquistadors, a new four part series follows four epic journeys during the Spanish Conquest of the New World. They will be broadcast by the BBC in November 2000.
Indian civilisation has long been a special interest: Over the years Michael Wood has made a dozen visits to India and in addition to his films, Darshan and Legacy, he has written The Smile of Murugan, about a small town inTamil Nadu and its annual pilgrimage.
His academic background was in early medieval English history; among his publications are In Search of the Dark Ages and Domesday. He published a recent series of medieval essays as In Search of England.
Michael Wood lives in North London with his wife and their two daughters.